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Agapit of Pechersk, the Unmercenary Physician. Interest to this historical personality is growing as the years go by, and his image is accumulating secrets and miracles, tidings about which are spreading all over the globe. Who was he? A doctor? There have been many doctors at all times, including nowadays and the times of Reverend Agapit’s life. A saint? There have been plenty of saints in all parts of the world. A monk? Monks have never been a rarity in our land. At that, a crowd of pilgrims comes exactly to the shrine with Reverend Agapit’s relics, and there are millions of people in that crowd every year. It’s difficult not to notice this. Thus, our desire to get at the heart of the matter is totally logical.

Today many people tend to believe that Islam tolerates or even welcomes brutal attitude to women. Indeed, in many countries and families there are certain negative trends which favour such opinion to strike root. It should be mentioned however that such behaviour of some Muslims does not mean whole Islam is so, and it is surely not the way Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) established in his times.

It’s really amazing: the further we plunge into our search, the more often a strange feeling arises that not we are looking for prophecies and predictions, but rather prophecies and predictions look for and find us! This time, once again, we have “accidentally” discovered staggering information dating back to several centuries ago, which is concordant with and supplements the topic we investigate: the advent of Messiah (Archangel Gabriel).

In this article we shall speak of predictions by mysterious Ursula Southeil (1488-1561), Mother Shipton, or the Yorkshire witch as she was also called.

Here we cite a prediction by Matrona of Moscow (1881-1952), who was relatively recently canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church and named Saint. By the way, in our previous article Gabriel standing! Five-century-old prophecy by Ursula Southeil, Mother Shipton we referred to an obscure “fiery Dragon” mentioned in Mother Shipton’s tough prophetic poem. Let’s read the relevant extract one more time:

Persistently threading our way through the thickets of various historical archives and records in search of mentions of Jesus Christ’s Beloved Disciple Mary Magdalene, we could not disregard a stunning resemblance between the Mother of God as a figure most worshiped by contemporary Christians and most often depicted on icons with a baby in her arms, and very similar pre-Christian prototypes of her. Despite the obvious malicious intent of certain invisible forces that obliterated historical records, extant artefacts do exist and can be an eloquent evidence of the outright plagiarism and striking manipulation of mass consciousness, which manipulation is unprecedented by its scale and timeframe.

As legend says, the initial miracle-working image of the Mother of God with seven arrows was drawn in remote antiquity. According to 19th century publications, this icon is over five hundred years old. In pre-revolutionary Russia there was a famous and respected copy of the icon, which was identified with its legendary original. However, particularities of the image iconography and the fact that the said copy was made on a canvas glued to a wooden board indicate its late origin. The copy was made in the 18th century, probably from the initial icon that had not been preserved and dated back to the 17th century, i.e. the time when many elements of Western iconography emerged in Russian painting. The wonderworking icon of the Mother of God “Seven Arrows” comes from northern Russia. Before the revolution it was kept in the Church of John the Divine on the bank of ToshnyaRiver, not far from Vologda. The legend about the icon resembles similar stories about Mother’s of God images seen in visions by different people. A peasant from Kadnikovsky uyezd (district) suffered from lameness for many years and had no hope already to get cured. Once he was sleeping, and a Divine voice ordered him to find an icon of the Mother of God in the Church of John the Divine bell tower where old icons were kept, and to pray in front of the icon with faith for his disease cure. Having come to that church, the peasant could not do right away what he’d been ordered in the vision. Only after his third request clergymen who did not trust his words let him enter the bell tower and go upstairs. It turned out the icon, being covered with dust and dirt, served as a simple wooden stair on which bell ringers stepped while going up or down the tower. Being terrified with their unintentional sacrilege, clergymen cleaned the icon and held a service in front of it, whereupon the peasant totally recovered. Several years later, the memory of the miracle started gradually fading away and could vanish totally, if it were not for a new God’s affair when the miraculous power of the Mother’s of God icon manifested itself again. In 1830, a horrible cholera epidemic overtook a major part of European Russia, including Vologda province. During the pestilence many sacred items were brought to Vologda from Toshnya, including the icon of the Mother of God with seven arrows, and placed in the “cold” (summer) Church of Dmitry Prilutsky on Navolok, in Vologda Zarechye, to the right of the main city bridge. Christ-loving inhabitants of Vologda held a religious procession with the Seven Arrows icon around the city. After the universal prayer in front of the wonderworking image, cholera abated just as suddenly as it had come.

I remember my first visit to the church about fifteen years ago. Someone said there was a monastery in Pechersk district of Kiev, where a wonderworking icon of the Mother of God was kept, and, supposedly, if one came there early in the morning, stood at the entire first acathistus and prayed, he or she could ask for certain things, and everything would come true. Yes, this was exactly how I memorized it fifteen years ago: “ask, and everything will come true”. A bait of miracle and wishes fulfilment in those rather troubled times. And I certainly went there, not so much for the sake of asking, but rather to see the icon which was so miraculous to fulfil all people’s wishes. Was it really wonderworking? Just to mention, I was not gullible at all, quite the contrary, but for some reason the mysterious wonderworking icon and the nationwide worship of the Mother of God – the authority – became convincing for me.

This article lay idle for a month and a half in my desk. The composition of it involved numerous obstacles, and even after the final article version was prepared and thoroughly edited on the website in the offline mode, the text suddenly and enigmatically disappeared, so that I had to rewrite everything all over again. Nonetheless, after a while I decided to go back to this story for a reason unknown to me.

In my previous publication entitled Grace of the Most Holy Mother of God I disclosed some details of my biography associated with my past spiritual awakening, if such pathos expression would be appropriate for an ordinary non-pathos life situation. In my case I could stop on that, since I am neither a select nor awarded with any particular divine marks or signs. However, something probably clicked inside, and the memory suddenly exposed a very interesting and long-forgotten story from the same time period, which story’s directly connected with Virgin Mary or rather her manifestation during my ordeals of those days. I gave myself a while to mull over whether I should present the story to a wide audience, and if so, in which form should I do that. I was and am still harried by certain contradictions: firstly I wouldn’t like to seem immodest, and secondly I fear to dilute the emphasis, since for better understanding it’s necessary to give details of my life situation in the first part of the story, while that situation had nothing to do with spirituality. Moreover, the whole story looks rather improbable today even for me, and I’m simply astounded what a fine fellow I was in those years.

Iconography is an art that keeps many secrets. Such secrets are ciphered in signs and symbols which conceal information, concepts and details unapparent for a cursory glance of an average person, but reveal a deep sacral meaning to an inquisitive heart of the one who seeks more than the entire material world can offer to its two-legged batteries. Probably, there is no person on the earth (other than representatives of tribes living in jungles) who hasn’t seen an icon of the Mother of God at least once, namely an icon where there is an up-horned crescent in the lower part of the image or a veil held in Virgin Mary’s hands while her elbows are bent. Icons drawn in such a style have always been particularly nice and attractive for me. Grace and tenderness beyond expression are coming from such images which, like a light amidst impenetrable darkness, are capable of rescuing anyone who asks for Virgin Mary’s help from the quagmire of existence in the brutal world created by people themselves.

Nowadays, Kiev Pechersk Lavra is a famous male monastery. Yet, not many people are aware of the historical fact that the Kiev Pechersk cloister initially accommodated both a nunnery and a monastery, representing a unique combination of female and male monastic communities and an abode for all people who endeavoured to learn their inner spiritual world, regardless of their nationality, age or sex. The nunnery (maiden convent), further referred to as the Ascension Convent, was an integral part of the Pechersk monastery complex and occupied one of central locations on the “holy mountain” – the place indicated by the Mother of God to Elder Antony.

Despite the fact that the Christan holy scripture – the Bible (New Testament) contains very few records of Virgin Mary’s words and deeds, her marvellous image and particular respect for her are found all over the world, to this day with inexplicable power attracting believers and atheists in different parts of the globe. We are returning to this wonderful luminous topic again, since we consider it to be one of the most worthy subjects to address and pay attention to. It deserves attention of all people for them to expand their limited understanding of the essence of hidden processes in the universe. Though many people are so far engrossed in earthly and transient things and fail the accept what they don’t physically see, though talks about spirituality and deep inner feelings provoke distrust and detachment, any opinion, even the most deep-rooted one, may be changed, while extinct interest may be inflamed with interesting and obvious facts, for facts are stubborn things.

In the previous article Star. The Golden Ratio. Places of Power. Ley Lines there was information about the so-called Stellar Road. I mentioned that once I had encountered the Stellar Road, my brain had worked in the “stop and look closely” mode. Herein I have already walked the Stellar Road, gathering pebbles, and there has turned out to be plenty of them. Perhaps, I lost sight of some pebbles, while some I did notice, but decided not to collect them (the Way passes through Southern France, Occitania, Languedoc, one of Cathars’ bases. Most probably, Knights Templar controlled this pilgrimage route in their time). I left these pebbles for those who might possibly desire to follow this Way, just like myself.

It’s a unique conversation with Igor Danilov, where the following subjects are discussed: the importance of unification between people prior to the forthcoming events, particularities of relations between people in society and in family, causes and solution of conflicts. And furthermore:

Freedom of choice and mutual respect.

Exploration of oneself and observation of illusionary games of consciousness. Why is it impossible to perceive the Spiritual World through consciousness?

What is spiritual egoism?

What is true Love?

What does the paradox of life consist in?

Particularities of human spiritual emergence. How to focus attention on and live in the Spiritual World.

These and many other topics are addressed in The Truth is One for Everyone program.

Having “accidentally” discovered an online collection of images of archaeological artefacts (statuettes and sculptures) devoted to female deities – Mothers of the World, we experienced another culture shock. Based on the primary source it can be concluded the materials were collected by Kulturologia.ru project to whom we express our sincere gratitude. They have brought together an enormous number of facts confirming that in all times, starting from deep antiquity and almost until today, famous and honoured women and female images (also called goddesses) were depicted in various cultures, civilizations and ages, in particular erected of stone, wood or plaster, in frescoes, paintings or bas-reliefs.

Having found out about a powerful earthquake in Italy, today’s morning (24 August 2016) I observed a strange phenomenon which I’d like to share with everyone. The strangeness is that while monitoring seismic activity on the planet during the last several years via www.quakes.globalincidentmap.com online service I have never observed such an unusual picture:

The subject of this material was suggested to us in comments to the article Five points of the Star. Hypotheses in addition to Star, The Golden Ratio series, where we published certain assumptions regarding the symbolism of the name ‘navels of the world / earth’ as ascribed to some geographic points on the planet. According to our experience, once you start searching for information on a given subject you always find more than you initially expected. Hence, in this research we will actually touch upon several topics that have proved to be closely interconnected.

As we have discovered while studying information about the territories where incredible archaeological sites and ancient architectural complexes are located, there are quite a lot of places on our planet, which in various times used to be called the ‘navels of the earth. Since today we don’t have genuine knowledge of the true history of humanity, there are probably many more of such places than official science is aware of.

The star has risen. I see its light even through leaden puffs of low-level clouds. The evening star signifying the coming of the great triumph... The Protecting Veil of the Most Holy Mother of God... Such tenderness, such boundless joy is ringing in the air... Breath helplessly fades, being unable to utter even a slightest word of admiration for your purest beauty, Our Lady… Wonderment in silence…

What is the sky for us? When we peer at the bewitching view of the night firmament, unwittingly arises a sensation of perishability of our existence compared to the eternal silence of trillions of shining stars. There is a feeling that the starry arch is a gate to the incomprehensible, which begins right here on the earth. Perhaps, for this very reason since ancient times people believed in a heavenly divine being that had created the world. The prayer most widespread in the world is addressed to the Heavenly Father: “Our Father, Who art in heaven...”

Many of you certainly attend churches, temples or houses of prayer, and believe in Single God. For sure, many of you respectfully treat the great woman depicted on numerous icons and images, revered in various religions and denominations, and named Mary. Unfortunately, today we know almost nothing about who this woman was and what was her destiny; and hardly many people have an idea of the true essence and meaning of her superior spiritual feat.

We have already dedicated a number of articles and analytical publications to her in the Holy Mother of God (Virgin Mary) section, and today we would like to post a new series of photos clearly showing that in Christian images and icons of Virgin Mary the sign consisting of a circle and a crescent is widely present – the sign that is already familiar to many readers as the AllatRa sign (more details about it may be found in our relevant analytical material).

Italy is a Roman Catholic country. In every city and even in every smallest town there are well-groomed Catholic churches. Many Italians regularly attend Sunday masses, accustoming younger generations to such tradition as well. In schools and kindergartens kids have weekly classes on religion. The church closely interacts with parishioners and their families. Joint family dinners are arranged, where people meet and communicate in an amicable environment.

Virgin Mary is particularly worshipped in this land. Chapels with Her statues are placed in many ordinary yards of dwelling houses, kindergartens and schools, as well as at street crossings. Inside nearly every house there is Her image or figurine.

Not many people know Virgin Mary has a number of sites in Italy – the very country where everything started and everything will end. It started from Peter and will end with Peter as well. As a matter of fact, the entire history of Catholicism has represented a struggle against the pure and Holy Personality, the mistress, Beloved Disciple and Apostle of Jesus – Mary Magdalene. It’s been a fight for power based on envy and hatred, for She always came to ordinary people, not to religious ministers.

Places of power chosen and attended by Mary are all around Italy. Since local inhabitants lack genuine knowledge, they believe it was Jesus’ mother who came. However, such misunderstanding does not prevent them from receiving help for already several centuries. Nowadays people here have nobody but Mary to rely and set hopes on, because Catholicism as religion can give nothing to a human being.

Having equipped ourselves with a camera, my friends and I went to explore local cultural heritage sites. Luckily, Barcelona as one of the centres of Templar activities in the Middle Ages is full of architectural riches, so we had an opportunity with our own eyes to see signs and symbols that we had previously seen mostly in books.

However, what we saw there surpassed all our expectations. Local signs and symbols carefully and accurately placed by Knowledgeable people centuries ago still wait for an attentive eye to notice them. Like guiding stars, they are ready to show the road to those who can orient themselves by them. The AllatRa book became an indispensable compass for us in such doing.

It turns out Virgin Mary is revered in Japan. You didn’t know, did you? Me neither, until I accidentally saw her image on the web. I set myself the task, found more images, and then decided to publish my image collection on the website.

She is very sweet, isn’t she? In Japanese images of Our Lady there are no features of sorrow, pain or bitterness as in the images usual for Catholic and Orthodox traditions. Only gentleness, touching tenderness and boundless love radiate from these simple Oriental scenes.

It turns out that even in socialist China people greatly revere and worship the divine deity – the virgin named Guanyin (or Guan Yin). Besides the Celestial Empire, this goddess is known in Vietnamese, Korean, Malaysian and Japanese mythology as a patroness and protectress of people from various calamities, giver of children and childbirth helper. Despite the fact that her holy image originates from Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara of the Buddhist tradition, Guanyin is revered by representatives of nearly all religious denominations in China.

For a long time it seemed to me the Chinese political policy did not favour the freedom of religion, but I was greatly mistaken. Look what statutes the Chinese have erected in honour of their heavenly patroness Guanyin.

This is the first part of a little series of articles dedicated to Mary’s help given to all of us. The subject was repeatedly addressed on this website, but it is so extensive that it’s impossible to cover it fully. There are whole books and tens of thousands of records of Her miraculous apparitions and healings via one or another Image / Face, and there are surely miracles She worked which are unrecorded in any written sources. Nobody will ever know for certain how many people She helped, because the help of a personality who follows the spiritual path is not necessarily flaunted, and exactly such help has no limits in time.

As a matter of fact, my role in preparation of these articles is quite modest and minor. It boils down to working with various sources which I will refer to as far as possible. There will be very few comments on my side and almost no analysis or comparison, since all those are needless.

The AllatRa book refers to the history of St. Sophia’s Cathedral construction in Kiev in the 11th century. It was built according to a design recommended by Agapit of Pechersk to Prince Yaroslav the Wise. Agapit partly let the prince into the secret of active signs, and Yaroslav successfully implemented the project, owing to which Kievan Rus became the “Home of the Most Holy Mother of God” (read more about the grand construction project in Kiev on pages 509-527 – allatra.us).

Below we will talk about the ways Our Lady protects Her “Home”, but first let’s tell more about St. Sophia’s Cathedral.

This is a closing part of the little series dedicated to the help rendered by Mary to all of us. As you have probably understood by the article title, we will talk about Reverend Silouan the Athonite. Recently on our website we touched upon the subject of Ezoosmos – the inner impulse. I believe it would be absolutely fair to attribute the concept of Ezoosmos to the personality’s spiritual path as well, that is in this context such impulse would be an event, e.g. a dream, a vision, or a conversation with someone. Owing to such an event, a person comes to understand he or she is not just a piece of matter, a part of this material world, but something greater…

Such event serves as a sort of an impetus that forces a person to step on the spiritual path, start improving oneself for the better in every day of one’s life, and gradually move in the right direction where he or she has been “pushed”.

Probably, not many people know that Virgin Mary is found even on mountain tops. In the Alps and the Pyrenees, in the Apennines and on Timor Island (Indonesia), in the Rocky Mountains of Montana (the USA) and on South American peaks, there stands Our Lady, loved and revered by billions of people, looking at humanity from the snowy mountain heights and offering all believers protection and blessing. Enormous statues and small figurines were placed there by both construction companies and courageous solitary mountain climbers who believed in Her and loved Her.

Recently I visited Kiev and “accidentally” called at St. Cyril’s Church on 12, Oleny Teligi Street. Although I was entering the church with interest, I did not expect to see anything special there. To tell the truth, I had never been particularly interested in the issue, which was not right as I later on understood. I believe, once you familiarize yourselves with this article you will grasp the reason, dear readers.

Let me once again revert to the topic of Virgin Mary reverence in various cultures of the world. This time I have prepared an image collection with North American Indian motifs. There is the Holy Mother with a baby and the signs already familiar to many of our readers, which entwine the discovered forms with the single grain of knowledge. At that, Our Lady is beautiful as always!)

Creation of all things in existence in this world takes place owing to the Feminine Principle. I got convinced of this over again when I accidentally encountered the book Myths and Legends of the Australian Aborigines by W. Ramsay Smith. To be more precise, an assistant in a book shop offered me this book, assuring me it was indeed an interesting source worth reading.

“In the sixth month Archangel was sent to the Pure Virgin, told Her to rejoice and predicted that the Saviour would come from Her. Having accepted blessing, She conceived the Eternal God who had the ineffable kindness to come into a human body in order to save our souls.”

(an unrhymed translation from Russian)

Mother of God, Mother of God, the Mother of light, love and good, You are my hope, Mother of God, and the time of miraculous insights. Mother of God, Mother of God, I love You so much with all my soul, You are my star, You are my dawn, You are a ray of light in the earthly life.

You are Our Lady of the Don, Our Lady of Kazan, Our Lady of the Sign – all Your images are with me. You are the Theotokos of Vladimir, Our Lady of Valaam, and Derzhavnaya above the land. You are the heavenly joy of all the sorrowful, You are the punishment for all the killed, Your are the Purest Bride of all virgins, You are my grief and love.